http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/14192692.htmMU Curators call meeting to consider firing Alden
BY MIKE DeARMOND
The Kansas City Star
In the midst of the crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s on the contract for new basketball coach Mike Anderson, the University of Missouri Board of Curators today will meet to consider firing the man who hired him.
This was all news to Mike Alden, the embattled MU athletic director, who when reached at his home in Columbia early Sunday morning said he had not been notified of any meeting to consider his tenure.
“Why would you put that out?” Alden said. “Nothing makes sense here right now.”
Nevertheless, Joe Moore, public relations spokesman for MU systems president Elson Floyd and the Board of Curators, told The Star early Sunday morning that it was his understanding that a meeting was to be held.
Angela Bennett, president of the curators, was quoted in Sunday’s editions of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as saying the board had called an emergency meeting for 12:30 p.m. in Columbia, to discuss “personnel matters.”
Bennett has not returned telephone calls to The Star for more than a week and did not on Sunday morning as well.
The Post-Dispatch article claimed that sources had said that if Alden is terminated, Missouri will honor the contract or allow Anderson to withdraw, regardless of whether the contract has been signed yet.
While aware of what was reported in the Post-Dispatch, Moore told The Star “I have no idea if they’re going to consider (Alden’s) status.”
Mary Jo Banken, a spokesman with the University News Bureau, the public relations arm for UMC Chancellor Brady Deaton, said she was unaware of whether Deaton knew about the curator’s special session being called. Since before the release last week of a second, independent, investigative report into the ouster of former MU basketball coach Quin Snyder, a gag order has been widely enforced on university employees talking about such matters.
Moore, when contacted by telephone shortly before 8 a.m. on Sunday, said it was his understanding that an emergency meeting would be held, in room 321 at University Hall, the Columbia office of Floyd and the Curators, and that a press release was being prepared for the media.
Alden was obviously taken by surprise.
“We’re getting ready to introduce a new basketball coach,” Alden said.
Alden said that the final terms were due to be concluded on the agreement with Anderson on Sunday morning. That is what was agreed to late Saturday night.
No press conference to introduce Anderson to the public has been set, despite some media reports that it was planned for 2 p.m. Sunday at Mizzou Arena.
Now, everything at Missouri is apparently uncertain.
Alden seemed more bewildered than anything.
“I’m sure I’ve made plenty of mistakes,” Alden said. “Everybody has. But I just got up and walked the dog."
